Growing Cooperation between two countries attract investors

12 February 2020

Turkish president set to reach Islamabad on Thursday for his 4th visit to Pakistan

KARACHI / ISLAMABAD, Pakistan

During a two-day visit to Pakistan this week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan are expected to discuss a string of issues confronting the Muslim world, with special focus on the U.S.’ so-called peace plan and the Kashmir situation, according to local experts.

“The two leaders have a variety of issues to discuss during this visit including the Kuala Lumpur initiative, Kashmir, and the U.S.’ so-called Middle East peace plan,” Shahid Amin, a former diplomat, told Anadolu Agency.

Amin said both Khan and Erdogan feel strongly about the lack of unity among Muslim countries, and discussions of the issue will be an important part of the agenda.

“An initiative has already been taken in this regard,” he said referring to last December’s Kuala Lumpur summit, which Pakistan skipped over reported pressure from Saudi Arabia.

“But it needs to be worked out further so that there must not be any impression of more division,” he said.

“Saudi Arabia and its allies are not happy with the Kuala Lumpur initiative, considering it a parallel platform, but it is equally true that Muslim world needs to be re-energized in the face of simmering challenges, especially after the announcement of Trump’s so-called peace plan.”

“President Erdogan is an old friend of Pakistan and he fully understands our constraints” leading to Islamabad sitting out the summit, Amin, whose diplomatic career spanned from 1958 to 1997, told Anadolu Agency.

“I am confident this visit will be a success and will bring the two nations further closer,” said Amin, who served as Pakistan’s ambassador to Libya, France, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia.

Abdul Khalique Ali, a Karachi-based political commentator, sees Erdogan’s visit to Pakistan as a result of growing understanding and cooperation between the two nations on several regional and international issues.

“The two sides have similar stands on several issues ranging from the ongoing situation in Kashmir to Trump’s ‘peace plan,’ and from reconciliation in Afghanistan to Nagorno-Karabakh,” Ali told Anadolu Agency.

“Turkey was among a few nations that helped Pakistan escape the blacklist of the FATF [intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force],” he said.

“It’s Turkey that has kept Pakistan’s interests equal to its own interests.”

The two sides, he said, would also discuss ways to further bolster economic and strategic cooperation.

Visit

Erdogan will arrive in Islamabad on Thursday for a two-day official visit, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry confirmed on Monday.

“We will warmly welcome the Turkish president in Pakistan. He is not only leading the Turkish nation but is also a voice for all the oppressed Muslims in the world,” Senator Siraj-ul-Haq told Anadolu Agency.

“I hope this visit will further strengthen our relations as Pakistan and Turkey have always supported each other in trying times,” said the senator, who is also chief of the country’s largest mainstream religious party, Jamaat-e-Islami.

Ordinary Pakistanis are also upbeat about Erdogan’s visit, with many messages of support seen on Twitter and Facebook.

“Welcome President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Pakistan,” Aamir Chishti tweeted in Turkish, with a short video of Erdogan and the flags of the two countries.

Growing cooperation

Ankara and Islamabad have boosted bilateral defense and security cooperation in recent years. In October 2018, the Pakistan Navy commissioned a 17,000-ton fleet tanker built in collaboration with a Turkish defense company in the southern port city of Karachi.

It was the largest warship ever constructed in the Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works, and the project was completed in collaboration with Turkish defense contractor STM.

In July 2018, Ankara won a multibillion-dollar tender to supply four corvettes to Pakistan’s Navy, a deal called the biggest export for Turkey’s defense industry in history by then-Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli.